Injury prevention: How to stretch properly

Stretching is commonly misconstrued as using a certain muscle group often or a quick tug on the muscle. Many of my patients state that they are surprised their muscles are tight since they “remain active,” “run often,” or “stretch a lot.” When I ask them to demonstrate their stretches, they generally show a poor form hamstring stretch held briefly and maybe show one or two other ineffective stretch positions.

Preventing athletic injuries and keeping your body fit must include stretching—the right way. As we play sports and participate in regular workouts and athletics, some muscle groups continue to strengthen and, thus, shorten. We must be aware of this change so we can incorporate an effective stretching routine to prevent muscle imbalances from developing and causing injuries.

It is also important to consider postures we typically hold ourselves in while working 40 hours per week. Commonly, we sit in the car to get to work, sit a computer for several hours, sit for meals and relaxation, all contributing to common patterns of muscle tightness.

Once you identify which of your muscles are tight, you can begin putting together a daily stretching program to target these muscles. Commonly tight muscles I see are hip flexors (upper front of thighs), quadriceps (front thigh to knee), hamstrings (back of thighs to knee), neck and chest muscles. If you need help identifying your specific tight muscle groups, your local Physical Therapist can assist you and provide specifics on proper form to effectively stretch these areas.

All stretches should be held at moderate intensity (approximately 6-7/10 intensity) for at least 30 seconds. Bring the muscle into the stretched position and hold steady (no bouncing) while deep breathing. After 30 seconds, remove pressure for a few seconds and then repeat the stretch at least three times. Our muscles have elastic properties that respond quickly to steady, consistent stretching. You will notice the intensity of the stretch reduces during the hold, allowing you to stretch a little further with time and subsequent repetitions.

Stretching should not be confused with “warming up.” While warming up is critical to prevent injuries as well, it does not involve stretching the muscles as I have described above. Rather, an effective warm up is a lighter version of the activity in which you are about to engage. For example, walking briskly or light jogging before a run. Usually 10-15 minutes of this light activity is an effective way to bring blood flow and "warmth" to the muscles required for the higher level activity. I recommend the actual stretching to be completed after the warm up or after your workout when the muscles are their loosest.

Your stretching routine can be completed in less than 10 minutes at the end of your workout. Another great method of exercise that focuses on stretching and complements all athletes' workouts is yoga. Completing this on a weekly basis is an effective way to stretch and maintain lengthened, balanced muscles. Neither requires a lot of time to add to your current workout routines when you consider the pay off of preventing an avoidable muscle strain injury, tendinitis, bursitis or even a complete muscle tear requiring surgical repair.

4 Gut Problems That Trigger Inflammation (Even If You Eat Healthy)

by Dr. Will Cole

Ditching processed junk for real, whole foods can do amazing things for our health. I’ve seen countless cases of lives being improved by the power of food medicine.

But what happens when, after adopting a clean, plant-based lifestyle, you hit a plateau? What happens when your symptoms flare up when you start eating better? I have seen many patients who eat very clean but still have health issues.

There are many possible reasons why eating healthy alone is not enough. But one of the most common underlying issues I often see is found in the microbiome.

Your microbiome is the trillions of bacteria and yeast that live in your gut and on your skin. The microbiome is home to around 80 percent of your immune system and 95 percent of your “happy” neurotransmitter serotonin. Often called your “second brain,” it helps control your mood, weight, hormones, and even your genetic expression.

Thousands of years ago, Hippocrates, the father of medicine said, “All disease begins in the gut.” Now, science is catching up with antiquity. Because your gut is foundational to almost every other system of your body, if you have a chronic or autoimmune condition, chances are it has at least a microbiome component to it – even if you aren’t experiencing digestion symptoms.

If you’re eating clean but are still experiencing health issues, there are four underlying gut problems to look for:

1. Leaky gut syndrome

When your intestinal lining is damaged, undigested food particles and bacterial endotoxins called lipopolysaccharides (LPS) can pass through the gut lining, leading to systemic inflammation throughout your body.

In functional medicine, leaky gut syndrome is seen as an almost precondition for autoimmune diseases and many other health problems.

What to do: Eating a clean diet takes out most of the immunoreactive and inflammatory foods like gluten, sugar, and bad fats, which is a great start. There is a chance though, that years of eating poorly in the past, medications, or just living in a modern toxic world could have caused chronic food intolerances.

When the gut is chronically damaged and an inflammatory-immune response has been triggered, your immune system can react to the healthiest of foods. I have seen bone broth, kale, and just about every other nutrient-dense food be a source of inflammation in some people.

In addition to getting functional medicine labs, an elimination diet is the first step to uncovering food intolerances and healing your gut.

2. Bacterial imbalances

The delicate balance of your gut garden is essential for health. Conditions like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and other bacterial dysbioses are linked to numerous health problems.

Anxiety and depression have been linked to lower levels of Lactobacillus helveticus and Bifidobacterium longum, and weight gain was linked to higher amounts of Firmicutes.

When someone with dysbiosis or SIBO starts to eat healthier and increases their vegetable intake, it can cause more gut problems, like constipation and bloating. But it is the underlying microbiome issue, not the vegetables, that is the root problem.

What to do: In addition to getting labs done to assess your microbiome levels, you should also consider a FODMAP intolerance. Foods like onions and garlic are just two of the healthy foods that will flare up digestive problems and inflammation in someone with FODMAP intolerance.

Natural antibiotics such as oregano oil, garlic, and uva ursi are some tools I use to help address bacterial overgrowths.

Probiotic combinations of Bifidobacteria, Enterococcus and Lactobacillus have also been shown to have a positive effect on SIBO.

3. Histamine Intolerance

One specific intolerance that I often find in people with leaky gut syndrome and bacterial overgrowths is histamine intolerance.

Histamine intolerance occurs when there is a dysfunction or deficiency of the enzymes that break histamines – chemicals produced during an allergic reaction – down. Without the enzymes to effectively get rid of excess histamine, the overflow can cause a lot of problems. There are also foods that naturally contain histamine, or trigger the release of histamine in the body.

What to do: Histamine intolerance can easily be found in people who eat healthfully, because many whole foods are high in histamine.

Fermented foods (kefir, kimchee, sauerkraut, and yogurt, for example), bone broth, and legumes (like chickpeas, beans, soybeans, peanuts) are all foods that are higher in histamine and can trigger inflammation for people with histamine intolerance.

Even with healthy foods, what works for one person may not be right for you.

4. Yeast overgrowth

We all have some yeast in our gut microbiome, but overgrowths of yeast such as Candida albicans can cause chronic low-grade inflammation and immune stress. People with an already weakened immune system or autoimmune problem can find a candida overgrowth to be a trigger for more health problems.

What to do: Fermented foods are generally good for us, but they don’t work for everyone. If you have candida or another yeast overgrowth, foods like sauerkraut and kimchee can feed the yeast. Certain probiotic supplements that contain prebiotics can also feed overgrowths.

I generally suggest waiting until after the die-off phase of candida removal before adding these foods back in. This can take anywhere from weeks to months, depending on the severity of the case. For a full list of my tips to fight off candida overgrowth, read my article.

What now? How to achieve optimal gut health:

Do you remember when you started living a healthy lifestyle and it was a little overwhelming? Dealing with microbiome issues might cause the same feelings of “Where do I even start?”

If you feel like you may have one of these gut problems, here are three simple action steps to point you in the direction of health:

Step 1: Consider functional medicine labs.

The first step to the functional medicine approach is finding out the root dysfunctions that give rise to chronic and autoimmune health problems.

Blood and stool labs can give you a detailed look at your microbiome, the levels of your specific bacteria and yeast, rule out leaky gut syndrome, give insight to food intolerances, and measure your autoimmune reactivity.

Step 2: Look at stress levels.

Even if you’re eating clean, being chronically stressed can sabotage your body’s ability to heal. Chronic stress has been shown to suppress the immune system, decrease blood and oxygen flow to the intestines, and increase gut lining permeability.

Finding ways to regularly de-stress like mindfulness meditation, tai chi, yoga, or just spending time in nature can be a piece to your healing puzzle.

Step 3: Consider personalized functional medicine.

We are all different, and there is no “one size fits all” to regaining your health. If you’ve cleaned up your diet but still have health problems, I recommend working with a qualified functional medicine practitioner.

Keep in mind that we are all on health journeys. We are all learning what works for our body and what doesn’t. Give this journey, and yourself, grace and patience.

If you want to learn more about your own health case please check out our free health evaluation. We offer in person as well as phone and webcam consultations for people across the country and around the world

FAT LOSS IS NOT ABOUT RESTRICTING CARBOHYDRATES

Fat loss is never about extreme restriction. People cut down on carbohydrates but make no attempt to cut down on sugary foods and treats. Sometimes, eating fewer carbs at night, especially if you cannot keep a long gap between dinner and bedtime, is a good idea as your body needs more protein and fats at night to carry on its bodily finctions while you are asleep. Of course, there are good and bad carbs. Good Carbs are required for your health and fat loss, and bad carbs can damage your health and immunity and make you put on weight.
The Metabolism Booster Diet includes some of the most nutritious carbohydrates known to man. To maintain a fast metabolism, we need a balanced diet that comprises all the macronutrients- carbohydrates, proteins and good fats. The absence of good carbs can cause sleep disorders and behavioural changes, along with low energy and fatigue.

This is what happens to your body when you stop exercising

There comes a point in almost every fitness lover's life when they consider throwing in the towel after a workout—both figuratively and literally. Blame it on your looming work deadlines, or the stubborn needle on the scale, or even just plain old boredom.

That’s normal. But here’s why you shouldn’t follow through on the temptation to just quit: There are plenty of benefits to exercise, but they’re not permanent. In fact, many of those hard-earned gains will start to disappear in as little as two weeks, says Farah Hameed, MD, a sports medicine physician with ColumbiaDoctors.

Here’s exactly what you can expect to happen to your body if you give up exercise:

Within 10 days: Your brain might start to change

For years, researchers have suspected that exercise is good for your brain, too—according to one 2013 review, it might be able to help offset age-related memory loss. Now, a new study in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found that even a short vacation from your workout might cause changes to the brain.

In the study, when a group of long-term endurance runners took a 10-day exercise hiatus, their subsequent MRIs showed a reduction in blood flow to the hippocampus, the part of the brain that’s associated with memory and emotion. The researchers point out that although the runners didn’t experience any cognitive changes over the period, more long-term studies are needed.

Within two weeks: Your endurance will plummet and your vitals may spike

After just 14 days, you might have a harder time climbing a flight of stairs or keeping up with your colleagues during the monthly kickball game. The reason you’re so winded? Skipping sweat sessions causes a drop in your VO2 max, or the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use. It can dip by about 10 percent after two weeks, says Dr. Hameed. It only gets worse from there: After four weeks, your VO2 max can drop by about 15 percent, and after three months, it can fall about 20 percent—“and those are conservative estimates,” Dr. Hameed notes.

Staying even slightly active can help: One 2009 study found that male kayakers who took a five-week break from their training saw an 11.3 percent drop on average in their VO2 max, while those who worked in a handful of exercise sessions during each week only saw a 5.6 percent drop.

RELATED: 11 Fitness Foods to Help You Get in Shape Faster

Even if you don’t notice a change in your speed or strength, you might experience a sharp rise in your blood pressure and blood glucose levels—something that could be more serious for people with diabetes or high blood pressure, says Dr. Hameed.

Researchers from South Africa found that a two-week exercise break was enough to offset the blood pressure benefits of two weeks of high-intensity interval training; another 2015 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that people who did an eight-month bout of resistance and aerobic exercise saw an improvement in the blood glucose levels, but lost almost half of these benefits after 14 days of inactivity.

RELATED: 20 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Within four weeks: Your strength will start slipping

Dr. Hameed estimates that some people will notice their strength declining after about two weeks of inactivity, while others will begin to see a difference after about four weeks. The silver lining: Our strength probably diminishes at a slower rate than our endurance, and one 2011 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning found that when one group of men stopped doing resistance training, they still had some of their strength gains up to 24 weeks later.

Within eight weeks: You might gain fat

Dr. Hameed estimates that people will start to notice a physical change—either by looking in the mirror, or at the number on the scale—after about six weeks. Even elite athletes aren’t immune to the rebound. A 2012 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that competitive swimmers who took a five-week break from their training experienced a 12 percent increase in their levels of body fat, and saw a boost in their body weight and waist circumference. (We should also point out that these athletes weren’t totally sedentary—they still did some light and moderate exercise.) And a 2016 study found that elite Taekwondo athletes who took an eight-week hiatus from exercise experienced an increase in their levels of body fat and a decrease in muscle mass, too.

RELATED: 10 Reasons Your Belly Fat Isn't Going Away

That said, there’s a difference between breaking up with exercise for good and taking a well-intentioned rest. The distinction: “You need to do some type of activity [every day],” says Dr. Hameed. For example, maybe you just ran the Chicago Marathon and can’t run another 16 miles, let alone 26—in that case, says Dr. Hameed, you should do some cross-training. (Think: cycling, using the elliptical, or even light walking.) Just don't quit moving altogether—your body, brain, and waistline will thank you.

This article originally appeared on Health.com.

Rheumatoid arthritis drugs: Direct switch has a beneficial effect

For the first time, a multicentre study headed up by MedUni Vienna has compared the action of two rheumatoid arthritis drugs from the same class. The study established that the two TNF inhibitors investigated are equally effective. It was also shown that, if treatment is failing, patients can benefit from an "on-the-fly" switch from one drug to the other. For example, 40% of patients responded positively to the "new" drug. This could result in a paradigm shift in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The study has now been published in the leading journal The Lancet.

In a large-scale study (EXXELERATE, funded by the company UCB) with around 1,000 volunteers, the research group headed up by rheumatoid arthritis specialist Josef Smolen (Head of the Department of Medicine III at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital) compared the two drugs certolizumab pegol and adalimumab (with methotrexate in each case). These drugs are two of the five TNF inhibitors currently in clinical use for treating rheumatoid arthritis. The Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF) is an important proinflammatory cytokine that releases certain messenger substances and activates various cell population, contributing to the development of fever and inflammatory responses. TNF inhibitors are drugs that block TNF and therefore have an anti-inflammatory effect and are used to combat a number of chronic inflammatory diseases.

The volunteers in both groups displayed similar responses to the drugs after 12 and 104 weeks, thereby demonstrating that they are equally effective. However, the study volunteers who had not experienced any beneficial effect after 12 weeks (primary treatment failure) switched to the other drug -- but, this time, without first discontinuing the previous drug for an extended period. This "immediate" switch-over nevertheless brought about a measurable improvement of the condition in 40% of volunteers -- and a very good one in 10%.

Ineffective treatment can quickly be changed

Hitherto it has been often recommended that, if treatment with a TNF inhibitor fails, one should switch over to a drug of another class. However, the results of this study prove that this is not necessary. "If treatment fails, it is possible to switch over to a drug of the same class," explains lead investigator Josef Smolen, "that still has a beneficial effect in many cases." If treatment with one drug does not bring about any improvement within three months, it is possible to change over to the other immediately. "This improves the quality of life for patients and saves costs, because ineffective biologic drugs can be discontinued after short time and replaced by a new one," explains the rheumatoid arthritis expert from Vienna.

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Materials provided by Medical University of Vienna. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Josef S Smolen, Gerd-Rüdiger Burmester, Bernard Combe, Jeffrey R Curtis, Stephen Hall, Boulos Haraoui, Ronald van Vollenhoven, Christopher Cioffi , Cécile Ecoffet, Leon Gervitz, Lucian Ionescu, Luke Peterson, Roy Fleischmann. Head-to-head comparison of certolizumab pegol versus adalimumab in rheumatoid arthritis: 2-year effi cacy and safety results from the randomised EXXELERATE study. The Lancet, November 2016 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31651-8

New drug beats standard therapy in advanced kidney cancer

An experimental kidney cancer drug outperformed the standard first-line therapy for patients with metastatic disease who are considered at risk for poorer than average outcomes, according to results of a randomized phase II clinical trial by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Individuals who received the drug, cabozantinib, had a longer time to progression -- the interval before their cancer worsened -- than those taking sunitinib (Sutent), the drug that has been the standard initial treatment for metastatic kidney cancer for the past decade.

Preliminary data also showed that cabozantinib was associated with 20 percent lower risk of death during the study.

Toni K. Choueiri, MD, director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber, is lead author on a report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology summarizing results of the multicenter trial; senior authors are from Duke University Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

"These results are very relevant to our practice and our kidney cancer patients -- they may change the standard," Choueiri said. "The results also demonstrate that studies sponsored by the National Cancer Institute can accrue rapidly and yield highly relevant results to the field."

Metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), is largely incurable, but researchers have identified factors used to classify patients as good, intermediate, or poor risk in terms of potential outcomes. The clinical trial included 157 patients, 81 percent considered to be intermediate risk and 19 percent poor risk, who had no previous treatment. In 36 percent of patients, the cancer had spread to the bone -- a harbinger of worse outcome.

The most effective drugs for metastatic kidney cancer at present are agents that block angiogenesis by targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors. Such compounds are designed to interrupt blood supply to the tumors, slowing their growth or shrinking them. Both sunitinib and cabozantinib inhibit VEGF; cabozantinib also blocks the MET and AXL oncogenes, both involved in resistance to VEGF inhibitors.

Cabozantinib, made by Exelixis, Inc., received Food and Drug Administration approval earlier in 2016 for second-line treatment of advanced kidney cancer. The current trial, known as A031203 CABOSUN, is comparing cabozantinib and sunitinib as initial treatment.

The primary endpoint of the trial is progression-free survival, which was a median 8.2 months for cabozantinib and 5.6 months for sunitinib. Cabozantinib reduced the rate of disease progression or death by 34 percent compared with sunitinib.

The overall response rate was better for cabozantinib patients, 46 percent of whom had complete or partial responses compared to 18 percent in the sunitinib group.

The trial wasn't designed to compare overall survival rates between the drugs, but the researchers said preliminary data with a relatively short follow-up showed cabozantinib treatment was associated with a 20 percent decrease in the risk of death.

The safety and side effects profiles of the two drugs were similar and comparable to those observed in kidney cancer patients treated with other VEGF inhibitors, the investigators said. Patients stopped treatment because of adverse events at equivalent rates with the two drugs.

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Materials provided by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Toni K. Choueiri, Susan Halabi, Ben L. Sanford, Olwen Hahn, M. Dror Michaelson, Meghara K. Walsh, Darren R. Feldman, Thomas Olencki, Joel Picus, Eric J. Small, Shaker Dakhil, Daniel J. George, and Michael J. Morris. Cabozantinib Versus Sunitinib As Initial Targeted Therapy for Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma of Poor or Intermediate Risk: The Alliance A031203 CABOSUN Trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology, November 2016 DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2016.70.7398

Too much fatty food could set children up for mental problems:

Chances are that children who eat excessive amounts of fatty foods will not only become obese, but will develop cognitive and psychiatric problems when they are older. This is because, according to a recent study, diets rich in fat deplete the levels of a key protein known to help synapses in the brain to work properly. In turn, this leads to a dip in several forms of cognitive functions, such as behavioral flexibility and memory.

"These changes from a young age onwards are more the result of the fatty foods themselves, and the impact they have on young brains, rather than arising from the mere fact of being obese," notes Urs Meyer from ETH Zurich in Switzerland in Springer Nature's journal Molecular Psychiatry. Together with Pascale Chavis from the INMED Institute in Marseille in France, they co-directed the first study providing molecular mechanisms for how high-fat diets during adolescence negatively affect normal brain functioning and cognition.

The researchers conducted a study in mice, and observed cognitive defects as early as four weeks after the mice were fed high-fat foods. These were evident even before the animals started gaining weight and appeared specifically in mice fed high-fat foods during adolescence, and not in mice fed the same diets during adulthood.

In order to get at the mechanisms underlying such observations, the authors focused on a frontal region in the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. In humans, the prefontal cortex is associated with the planning of complex actions and decision making, expressing one's personality and controlling one's social behavior. Several human studies had shown how fat-rich diets can reduce performance on executive tasks such as problem solving and working memory, in particular in adolescents. This seems worrying in light of a marked drop in the quality of diets over the past few decades and the poor understanding of the impact these diets have on our neurons.

These effects might be particularly relevant for adolescents, according to the study authors, as adolescence is a key period of increased caloric needs and heightened appetite for young people. It is the time when they start making more choices themselves about what to eat.

Adolescents eating high-fat diets may also be prone to cognitive deficits due to the immature character of the prefrontal cortex during this time frame. "This brain region is very interesting," notes French INSERM investigator Chavis, "because, unlike the rest of the brain, it is not fully developed until early adulthood." Researchers believe this relative immaturity makes the prefrontal cortex very sensitive to suboptimal experiences occurring during adolescence such as trauma, excessive stress or drug abuse. "Our study highlights that the quality of the food eaten by teenagers may also be particularly important for an optimal maturation of the prefrontal cortex," says Marie Labouesse, lead author of the study.

"We think this adolescent vulnerability to high-fat foods might be due to the hypersensitivity of a protein known as reelin," notes Labouesse. The researchers saw that the prefrontal cortex of mice fed high-fat foods had fewer neurons expressing reelin and this only happened when the diets were fed during the adolescent period. The authors then zoomed in, looking at synapses, those small microscopic structures that allow neurons to communicate between each other. The reelin protein is known to regulate synaptic function, and in particular synaptic plasticity, i.e. the ability of synapses to become stronger or weaker in response to a change in brain activity.

"We saw that plasticity in the prefrontal cortex was impaired in animals fed high-fat foods during adolescence; and quite remarkably we then observed that when restoring reelin levels, both synaptic plasticity and cognitive functions went back to normal," notes Chavis.

"Our findings that high-fat diets during adolescence disrupt functioning of the adult prefrontal cortex suggest that a careful nutritional balance during this sensitive period is pivotal for reaching the full capacity of adult prefrontal functions," says Labouesse. "Although we still need to find out the exact mechanisms by which reelin neurons get depleted during adolescence, it looks like high-fat foods could kick-start changes in how the prefrontal cortex of younger people develops."

These findings may help explain how unhealthy foods and obesity are increasingly linked to the development of neuropsychiatric and neurological conditions.

Reelin deficiency is also a feature repeatedly documented in brain disorders such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. "Although more studies on this topic are definitely needed," warns Meyer, "high-fat diets could potentially exacerbate the reelin and synaptic deficits in patients with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease or even aggravate cognitive anomalies."

"Reelin is now established as being a key player in the regulation of normal brain functions. The fact that the reelin protein displays vulnerability towards the negative effects of unhealthy foods is fascinating from the scientific perspective, but also very worrying when we think of the potential impact this might have for human health," concludes Chavis.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Springer. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. M A Labouesse, O Lassalle, J Richetto, J Iafrati, U Weber-Stadlbauer, T Notter, T Gschwind, L Pujadas, E Soriano, A C Reichelt, C Labouesse, W Langhans, P Chavis, U Meyer. Hypervulnerability of the adolescent prefrontal cortex to nutritional stress via reelin deficiency. Molecular Psychiatry, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/mp.2016.193

Powerful link between women's diet, stress level

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - More women are trying to eat healthier, but many say they are not feeling the benefits.

Researchers suggest there may be a powerful link between a woman's diet and her stress level.

After they get home from school and before they start their homework, Joanne Drew says it’s common for her kids to crave certain comfort food.

After all, days can be long and stressful even at their age.

"When you're stressed, you feel out of control so what you try to do is be in control and to be in control, you eat," Joanne said.  

In an effort to keep her family fit, Joanne looks for healthier ingredients in food whenever she can, but a new study suggests in stressful situations that may not be as helpful as you might think.

"What this tells us is that stress really does interact with the type of food you're eating,” said Dr. Janice Keicoltglaser. 

Dr. Keicoltglaser led the study at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center to see how stress impacts diet.

Researchers fed 58 women two different meals.
 
"One was a meal that was high in saturated fat, another was high oleic sunflower oil, that's a healthier oil, obviously, than saturated fat," said Dr. Janice Keicoltglaser. 

After women ate the meal with saturate fat, blood tests showed their inflammation levels were higher. After the healthier meal, they were lower.

Then researchers added stress to the equation.

"To our surprise, if women had a stressor the day before their meal, the type of fat didn't matter,” said Dr. Keicoltglaser.

In fact, healthier types of fat has no benefit for women who were stressed. Their inflammation markers remained elevated.

"That's important because those markers are associated with a variety of age related diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes," said Dr. Keicoltglaser. 

And it is even linked to some forms of cancer.

If you want to get the most out of a healthy diet, make managing your stress a key ingredient.